Eyes Front
Advent 1
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
When I was in seminary, a good chunk of the curriculum seemed designed to scare us. They were constantly warning us about how hard parish ministry is on clergy and their families. They pointed out different ways conflict could arise in churches. They’d bring in priests to talk to us who had been in some manner of trouble. Some had crumbled under stress and gotten into addictions or affairs and were disciplined. Others had taken the wrong call and been crushed by the experience. Some had burned out.
Meanwhile, we had a lot of conflict in the seminary itself. Our dean had been accused of sexual harassment, exonerated then disciplined anyway and eventually forced out. The students were divided in several ways. But worse, the faculty who were all ordained were as well.
Then one day during my third year, at the start of my last semester, a guy who had graduated at the end of my first year came back for a visit. I’ll call him Ken, because that’s his name. Ken Weldon, or as I like to call him, Ken “Good Servant” Weldon.
He said something that stuck with me the rest of that year and through my whole ministry. He said, “Don’t let them scare you and don’t worry about the drama here. It all gets very small in your rearview mirror very quickly. It’s great out there. The people are awesome and ministry is full of joy.”
I hung onto that to get me through the end of that year, through the uncertainties of finding my first call and all the way to today. He was exactly right. Yes, there are struggles, hardships and disappointments in ministry, but the hope, the promise and the joy of serving Jesus simply overwhelms all of that – if, if you stick close by him and turn back to him when things are hard and when they are great.
Jesus shares that balance between wary anticipation and promise with his disciples – and us. Today’s Gospel, like last week, appears a little out of place. You may have noticed a lot of people worked very hard this week to decorate the church, the first steps toward celebrating Christmas in a few weeks. We’re handing out Advent calendars. But today’s Gospel isn’t about angels or prophets heralding Christ’s birth. That is one of the two great themes of Advent, but not our focus today.
Today we are focusing on the second coming of Jesus. Jesus has just taught his disciples about the destruction of the Temple and the coming Day of the Lord – the judgment of all people and the entire creation. He is speaking in apocalyptic language about the end times. And he’s speaking to them on the Mount of Olives, where a huge cemetery and the Garden of Gethsemane (the olives) look down across the narrow Kidron Valley to the Temple Mount.
What Jesus just said was scary, in many respects. Signs and portents of doom, all come very suddenly, like the flood came in Noah’s time. Scripture doesn’t tell us much about the people back then.
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6) And, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and the earth filled with violence, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:11)
They are just living their lives, such as they are. They have no weather forecast when it starts to rain, and rain, and rain. It’s just over. That’s scary.
We find the Lord will judge us all and will divide sheep and goats, wheat and chaff, life and death; blessed people being snatched away to heaven and others left behind to suffer the disaster. The stark suddenness and clear judgment are scarier together.
Let’s pause just a moment and recognize: that’s life. Tragedy usually comes without warning; accidents in a vehicle or around the home, the quiet buildup of plaque in our arteries or cancers anywhere, job losses – you can complete your own list.
It can all be quite scary, except for one very important detail: Jesus. Without Jesus, it all looks very scary. With him, it looks very hard but we know what’s coming as well. For those who belong to Christ, judgment is not doom but redemption; the same Lord who comes as judge comes as savior.
We are not a rear-facing faith, focused entirely or even primarily on what was said and done 2,000 years ago. Yes, we study scripture and church history, but for the sake of applying it today with our eyes fixed on the future. We look back on our own lives to learn from and/or enjoy memories, but we cannot let those dominate our lives.
The Kingdom of God arrived when Jesus came into the world. It has come near today and is underway. Last week a handful of our youth shared it with the Care Center’s Thanksliving Camp. Last week, a handful of our parishioners shared it when they fed those youth and their counselors. That’s what watchfulness and being ready look like. It’s about narrowing the gap between what we believe and how we live. Now is a good time for New Year’s resolutions for our faith. These are foretastes of the heavenly banquet. The Kingdom of God will be complete in God’s time.
If you want to get a sense of how to balance retrospection – looking back – and vision, consider the relative size of a vehicle’s windshield as compared to its rearview mirror. It’s important to know where we’ve been and understand it as best we can, but don’t look back too long. We must keep our attention forward and strive onward.
If you want to get a sense of how to balance introspection – looking at ourselves – and vision, consider the relative time you should be watching the road as compared to buckling your seatbelt or adjusting the air conditioning.
We are built to look forward. Eyes front, including depth perception.
As we age, we may be seduced into thinking our best days are behind us. You may not be sure when you crested that hill but you know you did. The end is closer than the start. You are getting slower, tire more easily and everything in your body seems to be betraying you.
No. You are not even to the end of the first paragraph on the first page of your life, so think accordingly. Live accordingly. Jesus is coming, always coming, and makes himself known in the most unexpected times and unexpected ways. What will happen ultimately happens daily. And thus, he will come again.
Eyes front.
It’s great out there, because even and especially in our hardest moment, including our death, he comes bringing new life.
AMEN!